Restaurant menus can be fun, yet tastefully presented. I was privileged to be able to work with Labyrinth Restaurant Singapore, an award-winning local Singapore fine dining restaurant that looks at local cuisine, in a very different light. Owner and Chef LG Han also inspired me to combine art with food, with his adventure with food, and his love for the local fare. 

We sat down and talked about his background, and how & why Labyrinth was born. That gave me an understanding of the design tone and taste that might fit into the history, concept and most importantly, the brand. 

Upon presenting my few styles of food illustration, Chef Han took liking to my anatomical series of food illustration, a style that came naturally with my background in biology back in University, as I used to enjoy the Human Anatomy classes very much with all that drawing of body and bones.  

Chef Han also wanted to redesign his menu, making it more interactive and tells a story while chefs prepare their meals behind the kitchen. With his favourite places to have each dish, diners would be thrilled to have a chef recommendation of the actual dish. 

I thought that natural wood might be a good remake of the dried Opei Leaf bark that holds your favourite Hokkien Prawn Noodles. And we decided to execute that in the form of a box that holds the menu. Here are some of the drafts, research & development and mockups which led us to the final product. 

One of the challenges of the project was to design the menu in a way that they could make future minor text edits in-house with Microsoft Office. Working with Office was never easy for a creative. But nevertheless, illustrations made boring word documents fun, and bright. 

Working with top restaurants and having to incorporate illustrations and design together is certainly one of the most enjoyable projects to be involved in. Being Tokyo based, it was not easy painting local foods because I did get really hungry and a little homesick while illustrating the chilli crab and rojak! Can't wait to be back in Singapore and having my first dining experience at Labyrinth! 

The menu is now serving at Chef Han's Labyrinth Restaurant at the Esplanade Theatres. 

Labyrinth

8 Raffles Ave, 02-23 Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay, Singapore, Singapore 039802 

http://labyrinth.com.sg/

Reservations at +65 6223 4098